Winning Season, It's Good To Have You Back

The Red Sox pulled off a sweep of the Chicago White Sox over the weekend, and with Tampa Bay getting swept by Oakland, the Sox have opened up a 5 1/2 game lead in the AL East, their longest lead of the year.
They are now at 82-56, and that guarantees a winning season for 2013.
The Red Sox have won 8 of their last 10, and if they go .500 the rest of the way (12-12), Tampa Bay would have to go 20-7 the rest of their games to pass the Red Sox. And they are in the middle of a brutal West Coast trip, with 7 more to play on it.
Baltimore is 8 1/2 back, and New York is 9 behind, so their best road appears to be the Wild Card game, but that will be a tough task for both teams, with the Indians in the mix, and they have the easiest schedule of any American League team the rest of this season.
And I guess we can start talking about this subject now: the Red Sox Magic Number to win the AL East stands at 21.
A game that looked like a blowout on Sunday turned into a nail biter, as it went from 5-0 Red Sox, to 5-4 Red Sox. Then from 7-4 Red Sox to 7-6 Red Sox in the ninth, but Koji Uehara, who may well be the team's MVP, turned in yet another 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 16th save. He has an ERA of 1.19 for the year, and has allowed just one run in his last 36 innings. He's been simply remarkable.
The Sox have taken 5 of the 6 games on this homestand, and Detroit now comes in for three.
On a sad note, Daniel Bard was designated for assignment before yesterday's game. It appears his Red Sox career, which went off the rails in September 2011 and never seemed to get back on, is over. He'll probably have to take his next shot to revive it with another organization.